By Five Boro Sports
Kevin Shand didn’t spend this past summer playing football with the Springfield Rifles youth organization as most Campus Magnet players do. The speedster was training for his primary sport: track.
So when Shand, a running back and linebacker, began working out with his teammates in September, the team’s defensive schemes – the Bulldogs and Rifles have the same playbook – were foreign to him.
“We do a lot of different things on defense,” Campus Magnet coach Eric Barnett said. “He was lost. He didn’t know what to do.”
Shand, however, proved to be a quick study. The junior, who starred on the Bulldogs’ junior varsity last year at running back, had two interceptions of quarterback Damir Dukanovic and a blocked punt to help lead Campus Magnet to a 16−12 home win against Bayside on Sunday in Queens.
“It wasn’t too tough a transition,” Shand said.
Clearly. His blocked punt, after a bad snap to Bayside’s do−it−all senior Onur Gurbuz, with two minutes left in the first half set up Campus Magnet’s first touchdown. Two plays after Shand got to Gurbuz, Jonathan (Panama) Achab Syms took quarterback Evan Flowers’ fumble 27 yards for a touchdown with 1:18 left to give the Bulldogs a 7−6 lead.
On the very next Bayside series, Shand came up huge again. Gurbuz took the kick−off 77 yards down to the Campus 11−yard line and would have scored if not for the hustle of Syms. On the third play of the drive, Shand picked off Dukanovic.
“We beat ourselves,” said Dukanovic, who had touchdown passes to Gurbuz and Kory Dildy. “Everybody knows it. I think Campus Magnet knows it.”
Shand set up the Bulldogs’ final score with another interception of Dukanovic. He returned that one 23 yards to the Bayside 2−yard line with 1:25 left in the third quarter. James Johnson scored two plays later to make it 16−6.
Bayside (6−3) came right back, though. Gurbuz broke off another long return, a 76−yarder down to the 17, which again would have been a touchdown if not for Syms. And again the Commodores failed to score in the red zone. Dukanovic had four straight incomplete passes and Bayside turned it over on downs.
“We can’t lose games like this,” Gurbuz said. “That’s not Bayside football, but the other team won in the end, I guess.”
Both teams would have been in the 16−team city championship playoffs regardless of the outcome of the game. But the match−up was for homefield advantage – and, of course, Queens bragging rights. Campus Magnet (6−3), which beat Bayside, 33−7, last year snagged the No. 7 seed and will host No. 10 Boys & Girls next weekend in the first round, while No. 12 Bayside will travel to Brooklyn to meet No. 5 Sheepshead Bay.
Johnson rushed for 103 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown and Syms rushed for 71 yards on three carries and a score for Campus Magnet. Syms also had a fumble recovery and a 24−yard field goal.
Barnett said the mythical Queens championship “meant nothing,” but it does to the players.
“I know half the guys over there and they were talking a lot of junk,” Johnson said.
Added Bayside coach Jason Levitt: “My bus is going to be empty, because they all live [in this neighborhood].”
